Baritone Micah Schroeder and pianist Stéphane Mayer gave a recital on Saturday night at the Tranzac called Everlastingness.  It was a carefully curated mix of song recital classics, works by contemporary Canadian composers and some Armenian influences.  The balance was such that a two hour plus recital seemed to fly by.  I rather like the Tranzac for this kind of event.  The acoustics are fine and the comparative intimacy of it gives a vibe somewhere between a concert hall and, say, Opera Pub.  It’s certainly difficult to imagine anyone (furries aside) wearing tails there.

And so to the music… Matters kicked off with Danika Lorèn’s setting of Edna St.Vincent Millais’ Recuerdo no. 7 – A Few Figs From The Thistle.  It’s a gentle setting of an appealing text and was a good atmosphere setter.  Next was a foray into Ich bin ein ernsthafter deutscher Bariton territory with Schumann’s Lieder und Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister.  This was very nicely done with excellent diction, measured singing; balancing the dramatic and the sensitive aptly, and was beautifully accompanied.  Proper Lieder singing in fact.

Jocelyn Mortlock’s settings of rather ambiguous texts by Alan Ashton; Involuntary Love Songs came next.  The “stream of consciousness” text got treatment ranging from the subtle to the extremely emphatic while Stéphane navigated the rather sparse piano part skilfully.  The first half closed with Mary Kouyoumdjian’s setting of a Royce Vavrek text about Arshiel Gorky; Everlastingness.  Stéphane and Micah were joined by Brenna Hardy-Kavanagh on viola for this one.  It’s complex, combining piano arpeggios, a declamatory vocal line and a sort of folk-dancy viola part (amongst other things).  The music ebbs and flows in mood to match the allusive, indirect and sometimes rather dark text.  It’s a really good example of modern art song.

The second half got going with a suitably playful account of Poulenc’s Banalités; a setting of texts by Apollinaire which definitely show influences of surrealism.  It was very playful and my cold, dark Pennine soul utterly related to “Fagnes de Wallonie”.  We were back to Armenia next for three folk songs collected and arranged by Komitas.  If you have heard Armenian folksong you know what to expect and we got it.  And finally to Stéphane Mayer’s setting of Poe’s Annabel Lee; apparently written for Lauren Margison.  “Part sea shanty, part crashing waves on the piano” quoth the composer which turned out to be about right.

The encore was the near ubiquitous Love Went a Riding by Frank Bridge (somebody surely must have made the Pegasus Bridge connection at some point).  As good a way as any to round out a really rather satisfying evening.